For objectivity, depth, and completeness, this is the best book in print on the FBI for its intended age group. In clear, somewhat dry language, Israel covers the agency's history from its founding through its most famous cases to the present. He mentions the gangsters of the 1920s, the anti-sabotage work of the 1940s, Hoover's failure to attack organized crime in the 1950s, the infamous COINTELPRO campaign of the 1960s and 1970s, and the ABSCAM cases of the 1980s. Two useful chapters describe how to send for one's FBI files under the Freedom of Information Act and how to become an FBI agent. A history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from its founding to the present describing its functions, procedures, crime-detecting techniques, and its influence on American society